DJs O-Dub (Soul Sides) and Murphy’s Law (Captain’s Crates) Spinning: Soul, Latin, Funk and more
Murphy’s Law from Captain’s Crates and O-Dub (Soul-Sides) are once again joining forces at the Short Stop in Echo Park. We just rocked the spot three weeks back and promise to knock it out the park again this Thursday.
Given our mutual interests, expect a lot of Latin this evening, but also a nice dose of soul, funk, disco, etc.
As with our last gig, anyone who shows up and signs our mailing list gets an edited copy of our sets for download later.
Keronchong Salina : Bubuj Bulan & Modjang Priangan< taken from the album “Vol. 2” on Philips (197?)
Maroeti and his Krontjong Boys : Onde-Onde (“Sweet Cake”)
taken from the album “Ballads In Batik Vol. 2” on RCA (1974)
Kontjong, Kronchong, Kroncong, Keronchong… as mysterious in spelling as it is in melody. Moody, brooding, beautiful. I have several cassette tapes of similar music that I picked up in Indonesia back in 2000, but digitizing those would require pulling out (and dusting off) a tape player, which seems a little daunting right now. What limited info I have about this style of sound comes from the back of these LP’s (and can we just take a nice moment of appreciation for the killer COVER ART here?). Apparently, these melodies:
“Originate from the early Portugese settlers in Indonesia and when the Portugese left and the Dutch settlers came, it was inherited by the Portugese/Dutch Eurasians from grand-grand fathers to grand-grand sons and so on.”
Other than that, just let the tunes speak for themselves. “Bubuj Bulan” sounds like a ready-made RZA beat. Some serious Mulatu vibes around 1:40. I want more…
Playing catch up on the radio show podcast tip. I know some of you are still too lazy to click your way over to WNYU.org, so I’m doing the work for you. However, if you want to get the complete playlists, you’re gonna have to search through the playlists calender over there.
Been really lucky with the guests lately. Two members of Antibalas who have their own kickass projects that their working on these days. You should already be familiar with their music if you’re a regular reader here, but now you get a chance to glimpse inside their highly creative minds. Who woulda thunk, that two of the world’s heaviest Afrobeat players list “Off The Wall” and Lisa Lisa as some of their biggest musical influences?!?
Specks Williams: We Gave the Drummer Some From 7″ (Jax, 196?)
Little Hooks w/ Ray Nato and the Kings: Give the Drummer Some More From 7″ (United Artists, 1972)
Nothing too elaborate here – I picked up this Specks Williams 45 recently and automatically thought of the Little Hooks song; thought the two made sense to pair together. As it turns out, there’s an interesting coincidence b/t the two, insofar as Baltimore’s Little Hooks w/ Ray Nato and the Kings were first signed, back in the 1950s, to the Jax imprint, same label as Newark’s Specks Williams put his single out on. The Little Hooks song, however, came out on the Hollywood label, Enjay before getting picked up for wider distro by United Artists.
Of the two, I’m actually more partial to the Williams single, 1) it has the better drum break and 2) I like how it opens loud but then slides into a slick little guitar jazz number; not what you’d quite expect from it. “Give the Drummer Some More” wins for the better intro though, no question.
Jay-Z: 99 Problems (Royal Edit)
From Armed Snobbery (2007)
Look…I know that it already seems like I’m on Daptone’s payroll or something but frankly they’re just in an amazingly productive period right now and alas, most of it is great so the more good sh– they put out, the more likely I will be to write about it. And look at it this way: this post is Crackhouse free!
The Charles Bradley is one of the new 45s on the Dunham subsidiary (you’ll recall that excellent Menahan Street Band single was another one) and this copy of the 45 was given to me at the Sharon Jones show in L.A. by the guy who wrote it. Maybe that biases my opinion but *whistle* this single is easily one the best things I’ve heard from the Daptone’s camp yet. Just a beautiful, powerful song and personally, I like Bradley better on his ballads than doing the uptempo funk swang.
A Soul Sides reader put me up on the Anthony Hamilton – the Dap-Kings are backing him here on this cut off the American Gangster soundtrack (the Jay-Z free version, dig me?). Definitely a Memphis vibe on this one, especially infusing the song with a Hi Records flavor. I like that slow thump and Sunday organ sermonizing. (It’s also a better tune than the more JB-esque Hamilton song off the soundtrack).
Ok – Jay-Z IS back on this last cut; it’s a remix by the “Prince of Ballard” who runs the Armed Snobbery blog. After hearing the 50 Cent meets Sharon Jones mash-up, he sent me a few tracks in a similar fashion. You can peep the whole spread of his “Royal Edits” here. Out of the batch, I dug this and the Eazy E the best but his “99 Problems” edit is the better produced between the two: he fits Jay’s verses with the Dap-Kings instrumental track impressively well. Peep how those horns drop in when Jay-Z asks for the “hit”.
I’ve recently been enjoying the sounds of Brownout, a Latin funk outfit out of Austin, Texas. They’ve been around for a minute in the form of Grupo Fantasma except here, they’re strictly instrumental. What I like about these guys is not only that they have their chops down but rather than following a strict revivalist route, their sound has a clear Latin influence but isn’t holden to simply trying to sound like it’s East Harlem 1968 again.
There’s an impressive diversity of styles on the album and the two cuts I pulled out above can’t do it proper justice. “Laredo 77” reminds me a lot of the Calbido’s Three (who I really should get around to blogging about one of these days…note to self). Super laidback and smooth Latin-flavored soul-jazz.
“Barretta” goes in the other direction: dark, funky. with a slick kick and thump. I may very well have to play this out at my next gig (heck, I’m tempted to spin out half the album, just to see how it sounds loud).
Here’s the extra treat for Los Angelinos: Brownout is playing two shows, starting tomorrow night:
Oh yeah, one last thing: I’m forever indebted to Brownout for putting this video on their myspace page. Now I can see how the boogaloo is danced, by JB himself!
Speaking of gigs, Murphy’s Law and myself will be back at the Short Stop next Thursday, Jan 31. Hopefully, this will turn into something regular there. More info on this later.
